


BitterSweet

by spazmoid



Series: Heartlines [3]
Category: Free!
Genre: Bittersweet, Cafe AU, M/M, fxxkyeahmakorin, heartlines, i have been editing this for five thousand years i am never going to make a deadline, i really want a white tea latte, makorin - Freeform, potw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 15:28:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/967587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spazmoid/pseuds/spazmoid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He had a bunch of smiles. Rin Matsuoka had learnt that from studying the young barista in the café for a long time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	BitterSweet

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: Possessive/jealous Makoto over Rin in public/around swim club members/around Samezuka boys.

He had a bunch of smiles. Rin Matsuoka had learnt that from studying the young barista in the café for a long time. He would watch him, the way his green eyes turned in the light and his hair hung short around his ears. He would watch and wonder how such a man of huge stature could walk with an amazing sort of grace, weaving between the crowded café. Rin had the habit of showing up in the mornings, before classes and after his morning runs. The barista was always there, and unintentionally, Rin had grown a bit obsessed. He had learnt which tables the barista had worked and on which days without hardly paying any real thought to it. He had even learnt the barista's name. Tachibana. It rolled off his tongue as relieving as a morning coffee was after an all-nighter on a final semester term paper.

"You're here a lot aren't you?"

Rin had spaced. His fingers were still posed on the handle of his black coffee and grazing the top of a sandwich he had only taken a large bite out of. He drew his eyes to the man in front of him. If he was guessing right, Tachibana was a full head taller than him. "What's it to you? Maybe I just like the service." Rin was not entirely sure why he had said those words, but he found them embarrassing after he said them. He swallowed it down and looked down at his coffee that he brought through his lips.

Maybe he could swallow his embarrassment with it.

He dared to take a glance at Tachibana who was still standing there with a smile on his face. It was not the Polite Smile, but the Gentle Smile. Rin had saw it cross the barista's features a few times. There was the time when two young siblings came in babbling with a young man with an effeminate face that held an apathetic expression. This was the first time he had the chance of seeing the smile up close. He looked away again and sipped his coffee.

This time when he sneaked another glance, Tachibana was gone.

Rin continued that way for months. Spring turned to Summer. Summer turned to Autumn. Autumn turned to Winter. Snow coated the ground, and Rin, who now smelled of constant chlorine and sweat from the heavy jackets he wore during the season, was in the café more often to escape the brisk weather of Japan. At times like these, he wished he was back in Australia with a fan. Too hot was better than too cold. At least when he was hot, he could sweat off a cold.

He was waiting for his coffee when he found a glass of _something_ set before him. "White tea helps with your immune system," the voice Rin had came to know too well explained. "The leaves in the tea are minimally processed and are steamed and dried in order to keep all of the freshness in the leaves. I know you are not too fond of sweet things although, so I adjusted the recipe." He spoke calmly, all the while the Gentle Smile on his lips. It was different although. Maybe it was Tachibana's eyes. They had changed ever-so-slightly.

That, or Rin was reading too into things.

Eyes like two small green tea lattes watched him bring the glass to his lip with both hands and sip. He could feel them on him, staring at him, as he brought the mug back down. "It's okay," he said watching the green eyes dull to a tea that had been seeped too long. The smile faltered, and Rin looked away. "I mean. For tea. It could be worse. I'll pay for it."

"No need," Tachibana said. "It's on the house, Rin." The name came off of the other's tongue much too easily, as if he already knew them. The familiarity stunned Rin for a second as he stared. His hands were still touching the warmth of the glass. Before he could ask how Tachibana knew his forename, the other was gone.

He went the next day, but his favourite barista was absent. He waited an hour before exiting the café. The next day he came, and he waited again. The process repeating until all he did was sullenly order a to-go order and leaving.

"When did you start drinking tea lattes?" Nitori asked, the young man at his side. He had followed him on his run despite Rin's obvious disgruntled agreement to it. Rin just shrugged and sipped the latte. Nitori was a slower runner than him, and he had made him run much later than normal on his routine. Rin would be late for classes, but he was pretty sick anyway.

"Helps with the immune system," he finally said to answer Nitori's steady inquisitive stare. Rin found it annoying how those clear blue eyes would stare at him. It reminded him too much of steady green, and he hated remembering that green. He swallowed a sigh with a sip of his latte. "Drink your damn latte, so we can leave." Nitori had order the same drink. Rin found that habit of copying what he did a little weird, but he did admire Nitori's spirit. That was why they were good friends. More than anyone else Rin had became acquainted with at Samezuka University anyhow.

Rin did not even notice the clatter on his table until he looked up, surprised green eyes met by equally stunned Rooibos eyes. They grew in size when he was tugged from the table, leaving Nitori calling after him as he was dragged out of the café. Rin jerked his arm away viciously and hissed. "What the hell Tachibana?" He rubbed his wrists and scowled seeing the red tint that peeked from the sleeves of his jersey.

Tachibana seemed to be catching his breath. "You never came in with someone before," he said as if that would answer everything. All the simple statement did was irk Rin even more.

"What the fuck? Why is that any of your business?" His voice was a dangerous kind of low, sharp teeth threatening to bare from behind his fiercely downturned lips. "You don't even work this shift." The last statement was muttered as Rin continued to glare and scowl at the other.

"I do too. My schedule was changed," he said. There was no smile on his face as he said it, just a displeased frown Rin had never seen before. He kept staring at Rin. "Who was that?"

Rin glared at him. He was sure Tachibana was bringing up Nitori again. "None of your damn business," he repeated, and this time his tone was brisk. Fury showed in his incarnadine eyes. He brought his hands to Tachibana's chest and shoved him roughly. "Why do you want to know?"

A hand fell against the wall and somewhat cornered him against the literal bricks of the café and the metaphorical bricks that made up Tachibana's chest. That displeased expression was still there as he was stared down, those eyes boring into his. It disrupted him and made whatever snarky comeback had been in his mind catch in his throat. He swallowed the unsaid sentence and stared back as if challenged.

"I like you Matsuoka Rin."

If Rin had not been leaning against the wall, he was sure he would have fallen over or something equally embarrassing. He choked on the air that had caught in his throat, opening his mouth and then closing it. That had not been what he was expecting to leave the barista's mouth.

"I saw you swim. At the meets. I like to watch them," he explained quickly not delving into whatever nostalgia drove him to go. "I got your name from the screen announcing your first place, and then I learnt you came to the café at the same time every day." The once vexed expression was now showing what looked to Rin like nerves. He had seen that same expression on many first-timers in the competitive circuit at a meet.

"It's not that I followed you home or anything. I just kept track of your meets, and I umn... I tried to get the same shift, but then I realised it might be kind of weird, so I tried to avoid you." Definitely nerves. Whatever sign of displeasure on Tachibana's face had completely turned into nothing but nerves. "I uh..." He frowned deeply and his peridot stare was no longer on Rin's face, giving the other a chance to catch whatever breath he had stolen with his steady, intense gaze.

"Shut up. Explain what that has to do with Nitori." Now that he was no longer being worn down by those eyes, his courage and abrasive attitude was back.

"Explain to me what he is to you," Tachibana retorted. This time the nerves had mixed with whatever burden had been in the brunet's mind when he had dragged Rin from the warmth of the café. He brought his face closer - 'too close' Rin noted to himself. He tried to back away only to remember there was a wall.

"He's a friend not that you need to know Tachibana." Rin then paused and scowled. "Tell me your first name." It was just plain unfair that Tachibana seemed to know so much about him, and all Rin had on him was a bunch of smiles and the fact the other knew a lot about coffee beverages.

"I will only tell you if you go out with me."

Rin just stared at him shocked at the bold statement that still somehow sounded unsure coming from Tachibana's mouth. "You're so... weird," he finally said, and then he sighed heavily. His anger had eased somewhat although he was still irritated. "Fine."

He was further irritated by the way a smile worked its way on Tachibana's lips. "But one date. And you have to pay and meet me you fucking stalker," he muttered. This time his harsh words did not seem to make a single dent in the shining, bright smile on him. It was astoundingly warm, a new type of smile Rin had never seen before. He was struck dumb as he stared at it. Then even dumber when he felt the lips of that smile on his. He thought he heard someone say his name, but the voice was forgotten as the kiss deepened even more. The barista tasted like coffees and children's candies, a type of bittersweet that reminded Rin of a specially made white tea latte he had grown so very fond of.

"Makoto."

It took Rin a few moments to realise that was the name that belonged to peridot and green tea latte eyes. "Makoto...," he repeated trying the word on his tongue. It was strange to finally learn the barista's name he had been watching for nearly a year. It was even stranger to be kissing him again. He kissed back that time, his mouth imploring that bittersweetness farther. He only pulled back when his lip received the faintest bite. "What the hell?!" he cursed and pulled back. He reached up and touched his bruised and somewhat split lip.

A new smile. It was amazing how sweet it was considered to the action. Rin had learnt that maybe that bittersweetness went ever further than just Makoto's coffee-flavoured and candied kisses. "Remember our date," he said the new smile fading behind a gentle one. Rin was still in awe. 'Orca'. The thought entered his mind without thought. For a moment Makoto had reminded him of a killer whale confiscating territory. He watched as Makoto made his goodbyes and politely gave a stunned still Nitori that Orca Smile Rin had just discovered.

Nitori's blue eyes met Rin who just muttered for him to come on, not caring that he left his white tea unfinished. He had enough of that peculiar sweet flavour from lips that hid a million different smiles. He found the name the flavour was associated with had acquired the flavour as it ran over in his head.

He did not even realise he had been smiling until Nitori pointed it out. When asked, he said 'nothing' when really there was a kind of 'everything' churning in his mind. (Every smile, every word, and every bittersweet moment that he knew would be stuck in his mind until the next day when he had his refill of not a white tea latte but green tea eyes and a candy smile.)


End file.
